Baruch Spinoza. Created by Barend Graat. Public domain image.
'Vineland' Addendum
Special guest blogger
The world moves on a woman's hips
The world moves and it swivels and bops
The world moves on a woman's hips
The world moves and it bounces and hops
– Talking Heads, "The Great Curve" from Remain in Light.
Like many Thomas Pynchon enthusiasts I dived in to Shadow Ticket within days of its release. I strongly suspect Uncle Pinky knew the attention fader would be brought up on Vineland due to the massive publicity halo around One Battle After Another so timed the publication of his latest to shortly follow the cinematic release. Shadow Ticket appears to make sly references back to Vineland like introducing the reader to the Hungarian word for grass: fű which they smoke. Readers of Against The Day with a good memory will recognize Lew Basnight.
Themes, characters, modalities and connections traverse across the Pynchon universe; Basnight makes a great example. Shadow Ticket follows the adventures and misadventures of Hicks McTaggart on what seems to him a dubious mission as a private investigator. Lew Basnight is also a P.I. in Against the Day in the employ of White City Investigations. Basnight becomes Hicks' mentor in Shadow Ticket. The timeline between the two novels even fits. Against the Day ends around 1919 with the events in Shadow Ticket occurring in 1932 and the occasional look back at the 1920s for context.
Arc/arch imagery provides another clear example of cross textual referencing. Pynchon's most famous book, Gravity's Rainbow, begins with the arc of a V2 rocket in WWII England, heard but not seen. Several scholarly interpretations say this refers to the novel's title since a rainbow appears in the form of an arc across the sky. The fourth paragraph of GR shows people evacuating: ". . . they go in under archways, secret entrances of rotted concrete that only look like loops of an underpass . . ." These "secret entrances of rotted concrete" appears either a direct reference or a coincidental parallel with something from Autobiography of a Sufi by E. J. Gold, but I digress. Mason & Dixon, Pynchon's next big epic after GR opens with the phrase: "Snow-balls have flown their Arcs...". In Vineland Hubbel Gates receives word of the birth of his granddaughter Prairie "just as he was cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light" (p. 287). Shadow Ticket has a moment when Hicks lights a cigarette for Daphne, the female cheez heiress he's been hired to bring back home: " . . . bending in toward him carefully, an intimate of flame at many levels from candles to arc lamps . . ." Later, we come across "... thickets of electric arc beams crossing from every roof, prismatic, cylindrical, masses of shadow, flanges of vane and light."
I commented on an arc theme in the discussion group for RAW's The Widow's Son [available here on the right side of the page -- scroll down -- Tom]. I derived that one from the mysterious Latin phrase, Et in Arcadia Ego (And in Arcadia I) that recurs in the plot. In one instance it appears at the end of a list connected to Freemasonry just below La Fils de la Veuve which translates from Latin to "The Widow's Son." Wilson writes: "The last part (of the list), then, was in code. That would not be put into writing at any time, but only communicated viva voce (lively voice)." We've already discussed Pynchon's propensity for using the letter V which continues unabated in Shadow Ticket. I suspect Wilson's use of the three letter Vs in Latin right before and after Arcadia (Veuve, viva voce) signals an arc across the bow from Uncle Bob to Uncle Pinky.
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The philosophical influence of Baruch Spinoza permeates the written output of Pynchon, Wilson and James Joyce, the latter also influencing profoundly the two former. Spinoza seems one of the first philosophers of the modern era to take a scientific approach to the presentation of his thought. He imitates the form of Euclid's classic work on geometry, Elements in his signature work, Ethics. Both Tom and Bob incorporate much Science into their fiction, sometimes rather obscurely. Spinoza famously came up with the concept "Deus sive Natura" in which he postulated an impersonal God that finds expression in Nature. For this new perspective on divinity he was deemed an atheist and excommunicated from the Jewish religion. Others labelled him a pantheist; this seems more accurate. This concept became more popularly known as Nature's God. Wilson used this as the title for his final book in the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles.
Spinoza also had a profound influence on Gilles Deleuze who regarded him as the Christ of philosophers in part, I guess, due to the concept of Nature's God making divinity immanently accessible to anyone. The traditional model of the Judeo-Christian God holds that "he" exists in a transcendental realm outside the direct reach of humanity similar to Plato's Ideal Forms. Deleuze does away with religious sounding language by resurrecting the concept of Univocity or Univocity of Being. Coming from the medieval thinker John Duns Scotus, GD applies it to Spinoza's view that the universe comprises a single substance in an infinite variety of forms. "Being is said in a single and same sense of everything of which it is said, but that of which it is said differs: it is said of difference itself" (Deleuze, Difference and Repetition). All being speaks with a single voice (univocity) in many different ways describes how I understand the concept. This reminds me of viva voce from the Wilson quote above.
A qabalist, being trained in the art of looking at things backwards (see Magick in Theory and Practice by Crowley) might look at Pink's inclusion of dogs in his oeuvre, many of them talking, as a coded reference to God. "Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us." (The Book of the Law II:19) I won't pretend to know what that means, I quote it to show a well-known (to occultists) reversal of dog. Joyce uses the dog/god wordplay twice in the Circe episode of Ulysses. Earlier, I listed a number of reversals in Vineland's last chapter, but left a subtle one out. The Bob Dylan reference has a musician alluding to Woody Guthrie ("This machine kills fascists" sign on his guitar) in search of the Vomitones and mentions an album title suggestive of a Dylan album. Woody searching for Dylan reverses the actuality that Dylan went in search of Woody Guthrie (literally and metaphorically) . . . and found him. Recall that Vineland ends with the family dog, Desmond, finding Prairie and thinking he was home. I also gave the Sufi code fog = face of god, representing, perhaps, another material encounter with Nature's God aka Life. "That is god . . . a shout in the street" (Joyce, Ulysses). In a morning broadcast earlier this week Lon Milo Duquette mentioned that Kabbalah influenced both Kant and Spinoza. I personally Kant believe that ... not.
Todd May, a Deleuze scholar, says that Deleuze's favorite Spinoza quote is "We do not even know of what a body is capable." In other words, we don't know what a body can do – speaking of all material bodies. Pynchon's science fiction often explores the abilities humans may acquire through exercising their attention in certain ways. Some of the things he writes about seem possible, i.e. immanent: ESP, astral travel; others, like the Ninja Death touch, further out of reach, but you never know.
Frederich Nietzsche also strongly influenced Pynchon, Deleuze and Wilson. Perspectivism, the idea that any given individual's reality seems an interpretation by that individual, abounds in Pynchon. Also, every reader will have a different perspective on TP's literature. Nietzsche's philosophy affirms life. He opposed the Christianity of his day because he felt them to be nihilistic; they denied life on Earth telling believers to wait for the afterlife when everything will be groovy. Pynchon appears essentially life affirming, in my perspective, while showing much resistance to the affirmation as in Against the Day, or the fascism in Vineland and Shadow Ticket.
I see the conclusion (much of the last chapter) of Vineland as very life affirming. Analyzing the symbolism in the last sentence and a bit we find:
"deer and cows grazing in the meadow" – different species in peaceful harmony; meadow = Old Norse for vin as in Vineland (courtesy of Spookah; see his comment in the last chapter's post for elaboration); the word "meadow" occurs twice in the long penultimate sentence of the book.
"sun blinding in the cobwebs on the wet grass, a redtail hawk in an updraft soaring above the ridgeline"
– much symbolism with "sun," the most obvious being Tiphareth which corresponds to the heart; "redtail hawk = Horus aka "the crowned and conquering child." Horus corresponds with the red planet Mars,
"Sunday morning about to unfold" – an additional solar affirmation.
"when Prairie woke to a warm and persistent tongue all over her face." – tongue suggests the Christian holy day Pentecost when "tongues like as of fire" (Acts 2:3) descended upon the disciples of Jesus after his death. The Hebrew word for tongue adds to 386 which corresponds with Jesus (Sepher Sephiroth).
The Hebrew letter shin looks like this: ש. It's associated with the element Fire. In Kabbalah, the three prongs represent "three tongues of a divine flame" (the Zohar). In Christian Cabala when shin descends into the name of God - YHVH (Jehovah) it forms the word YHShVH (Yeshua = Jesus). This symbolizes the descent of divine spirit into matter, or Qabalistically, Kether into Malkuth. The number 86 and chee-tos in Vineland provide different semiotics representing Kether in Malkuth. In The Book of Lies Chapter 69 "The Way to Succeed and The Way to Suck Eggs!" Crowley writes of tongues and discusses their symbolism in connection with his word/formula ABRAHADABRA which he calls "the Holy Hexagram." The two interlocking triangles (looks like a Star of David) symbolizes the descent of spirit and the ascent of matter. 69 also simply indicates a reversal which we see that Pynchon loves to do. By Notarikon "warm and persistent tongue" = 96 = Work.
"It was Desmond, none other ..." I see the name Desmond as representing the everyday, common WoMan similar to Joyce's HCE. See (or better yet, listen to) "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by the Beatles. One huge difference between regular Christianity and Thelema is that the former worship an alleged historical character who promises to take care of things if you believe in him. The latter get instructed to make efforts to attain that level of consciousness on their own i.e. the level of Tiphareth which I consider conterminous with Leary's C6.
"the spit and image of his grandmother Chloe" – Grandmother reprises the Mother archetype. Chloe derives from an ancient Greek word meaning"young green shoot", "blooming" or "fertility" and serves as another moniker for the goddess Demeter. The Greeks had a festival in the spring called Chloeia to celebrate the return of plant life. Chloe as "blooming" could refer to Leopold Bloom (central character in Ulysses) in homage to Joyce and/or to Mel Brooks who put Leopold Bloom into his film The Producers. According to Deleuze, sense must get produced (The Logic of Sense). Sense, in Deleuze's rendering, indicates not only linguistic meaning, but also something similar to Bergson's elan vital – vitality.
"roughened by the miles" – there always seems resistance to affirming life; related to the idea that the gnosis always gets busted from Cosmic Trigger I; one battle after another.
"face full of blue-jay feathers" – as discussed earlier, blue connects with Nuit, Crowleys Mom archetype. Attention is repeatedly brought to the striking blue brilliance of Frenesi, Prairie and Sasha's eyes in Vineland. "So she (Nuit) answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love . . ." (BoTL I:26). We also have "Babe in the egg of blue" referring to Hoor Pa Kraat, the female aspect of Horus. Jay appears a somewhat outdated slang word for a reefer joint. For some reason unknown to me Pynchon chooses to hyphenate blue jay in the last sentence in Vineland while the first sentence has blue jay without a hyphen. Maybe a typo? Blue jay appearing at the very beginning and the very end could allude to the circular nature of Finnegans Wake.
"smiling out of his eyes" – reminds me of Learys SMI2LE formula.
"wagging his tail" – a canine affirmation of life
"thinking he must be home." All kinds of obvious symbolism with this, but I'm reminded of a scene from Duck Soup. Pynchon seems a Marx Brothers enthusiast. He has various references to them throughout his works.
This clip only runs for a minute.
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Thomas Pynchon's literature beautifully exemplifies Nietzsche and Deleuze's view of writers as "'physicians of culture' for whom phenomena are signs or symptoms that reflect a certain state of forces." Although written in 1990, Vineland presciently reflects current events most poignantly with the freedom v fascism dialectic. Deleuze writes, "The aim of writing is to carry life to the state of a non-personal power." He looks at the function of literature in an essay called "The Literary Machine."
"For art, Deleuze argues, is essentially productive: the work of art is a machine for producing or generating certain effects, certain signs, by determinable procedures. Proust suggested that his readers use his book as an optical instrument, 'a kind of magnifying glass' that would provide them with 'the means of reading within themselves,' in much the same way that Joyce described his works as machines for producing 'epiphanies.' . . . The question Deleuze here poses to the literary work is not "What does it mean?' (interpretation) but rather "How does it function?' (experimentation)" - from Daniel W. Smith's Introduction to Essays Critical and Clinical by Deleuze.
What kind of machine might Thomas Pynchon's literature be called? How does it function? By no means am I an expert on Pynchon, more of an enthusiast, but I'm brazen enough in my ignorance to hazard a guess. In the Introduction to Slow Learner where he mercilessly criticizes his early short stories, one inside look caught my attention as perhaps indicative of his oeuvre as a whole. Discussing the story "Entropy" he looks at the etymology of the word: "Well, according to the OED the word was coined in 1865 by Rudolf Clausius, on the model of the word 'energy,' which he took to be Greek for 'work- contents.' Entropy, or 'transformation-contents' was introduced as a way of examining the changes a heat engine went through in a typical cycle, the transformation being heat into work."
For the moment, until something better comes along, I choose to think of Pynchon's works as machines for producing "transformation-contents." Earlier I wrote to the effect that what you get out of Pynchon's books appears dependent on the energy put in to understanding them. It requires work of a certain kind. I suspect that simply the effort put in to following the plot with all its twists and turns, digressions, sidetracks and tangents; its obscure words, references and engineering details will necessarily bring about at least some small transformation in the reader's neural circuitry by just attempting to grasp what the hell is going on.
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I thoroughly enjoyed One Battle After Another; perhaps the best action movie to flicker into these eyes. Though not faithful to Vineland, as advertised, I strongly feel that director Paul Thomas Anderson channelled the spirit of it. For instance, since the beginning of this series I've been harping about the problematic fascist dominance of unbalanced, aggressive male energy. Col. Stephen J. Lockjaw, based on Brock Vond and brilliantly played by Sean Penn, gets called "Dickhead" the first time Perfidia Beverly Hills (based on Frenesi) addresses him. I saw other examples that make explicit themes I've written of, but don't wish to give too much away. I'll only say that the film makes a great adjunct for grokking the book, and vice versa.
Shortly before embarking upon this journey, an idea got floated that maybe all this renewed Pynchon interest and energy might serve as a kind of resistance or counterpoint to the fascist power grab going on in the United States, and to some extent, in many other places around the world not fascist already. I considered it a kind of wishful thinking, but to an operator of magick, wishful thinking seems part and parcel of the territory. Then came the excellent report from A Building Roam titled "Return of the Counterforce" which echoes and elaborates upon this sentiment quite well. After voyaging through the powerful trifecta of Vineland, One Battle After Another, and Shadow Ticket I know longer consider it wishful thinking. It looks and feels to me like real magick; different forces at play.
In actual life, Sean Penn, appearing in two of the three, seems an active and dynamic facet of the counterforce with his Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), "a nonprofit humanitarian organization that responds to disasters around the world." Their logo shows the C and O making an infinity sign. Infinity at the core seems quite appropriate to this Pynchon narrative.
I recently listened to a podcast called "Nietzsche's Most Important Teaching" about his essay "Schopenhauer as Educator." Presented by Keegan Kjeldsen, he states his interpretation of Nietzsche's goal: ". . . to draw the heroic out of us. He wants to draw the aspiration for freedom out of the modern man." I get this feeling from Vineland, an aspiration for freedom. The heroic quite obviously gets drawn out of Bob Ferguson (based on Zoyd, played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in One Battle After Another. After the heyday of his revolutionary life serving as an explosives expert Bob settles into a passive stoner's existence raising his daughter, Willa. The heroic gets comically drawn out of him after Willa gets abducted by Lockjaw and he persistently endeavors to rescue her ... dressed like the Dude.
I have finished an initial go around with Shadow Ticket and recommend it highly. It seems as good or better than anything Pynchon has written. Information rich, it has way more than I could grasp in a single reading. I plan to read it again before writing a review though I don't know when. Two more connections with Vineland to bring up here. Despite the action taking place in Milwaukee, Chicago, Central Europe, the Balkans and at or under the sea, the word "prairie" gets mentioned about 6 times though I wasn't keeping count; once near the very end. The theme of attention comes up a few times, though due to the density and often obscurity of the information in the story, if you blink, you'll miss it.
NPR published an article the other day headlined: "Mental exercise can reverse a brain change linked to aging, study finds." It goes on to say: "A 10 week study of people 65 or older found that doing rigorous mental exercises for 30 minutes a day increased the levels of a chemical messenger acetylcholine by 2.3% in a brain area involved in attention and memory. . . . So at least in this brain area, cognitive training appeared to turn the clock back by about 10 years." Read Pynchon or fiction by Wilson or Joyce, etc, for rigorous mental training that's FUN!
1 comment:
Terrific post!
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